


Darkness Dreams

by FactorialRabbits



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi | Fire Emblem: Binding Blade
Genre: Gen, I've tagged Elphin but Elphin doesn't exist yet, References to Minor Character Death, given its father's day, just sad family feelings, the queen's to be specific
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24845551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FactorialRabbits/pseuds/FactorialRabbits
Summary: The King cannot sleep, and the Prince has a nightmare.
Relationships: Mildain & Mordred (Fire Emblem)
Kudos: 1





	Darkness Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Father's day is inherently traumatic for me, but making something with these two being happy for it. I think I failed at happy.
> 
> I also used two characters with little characterisation over a decade and a half before the plot actually starts (Elffin/Myrddin is... 4-ish? I don't do children well), so I'm not sure there is enough IC to know if they're OOC. 
> 
> I've spell checked but not editted. Take from it whatever you like.
> 
> I am told his birth name is actually spelt Myrddin now we have an official translation, so there we go.
> 
> (Am I populating Mordred's tag single handedly? Very, very slowly)

It is cold and it is dark and it is early in the morning. Or maybe it is late at night; Mordred remains still on his sheets, tempted to toss and turn and find a more comfortable position, yet knowing that it is impossible. Outside a storm rages on.

Maybe that is why tonight sleep does not come, maybe it is not. The absence of his beloved wife is clearer tonight that it has since her funeral, and the cold of her side of the bed far more obvious that it has been for a while.

The seasons have turned, and so things change.

By his door he can hear his guards talking quietly; usually they are quiet, but maybe they felt that between the noise of the storm and the fact he would usually be deeply asleep it was well. He does not really mind – it would not keep him awake were he asleep, and he trusts them not to distract themselves.

He exists in an exhausted daze until he hears a clap of thunder, a yelp from one of his guards, and a familiar shriek of 'father!'.

In a moment he is up and moves to the door. He pulls it open, only to be met by small hands grasping at him. The guards try to apologise and offer to take his son away, but he waves them away; tears are already soaking into his hip. When they object he merely tells them to let his son's minders have an evening off; he'll reprimand them for letting the boy escape later. For now... For now his son is crying, and his heart is breaking.

It is awkward to usher Myrddin to the bed, clinging to him and sobbing as his son is, but he does it. And then Mordred pulls him up to sit beside him, and embraces him with a kiss to the forehead.

“Myrddin,” he runs a hand through golden hair. “It will be alright; father's here.”

There's another peel of thunder, and his son clings tighter to him. Mordred's heart does something strange as he repositions them both. Soon they are lying under the blankets, Myrddin nestled into his father's chest.

“Did the storm scare you?” he continues to run his hand through the hair, protecting his child even as he sobs. “It's alright; father won't let anything hurt you.”

He won't, and he can't. Myrddin is all he has, now. Not in a physical sense – he has a kingdom and a treasury and an army at his hand – but his wife his dead, his parents long to their graves, he never had a sibling... If anything were to happen to his son, the last family he has, he does not know what he would do. Join him? Abandon his kingdom to ruin to follow his child?

Maybe a little dramatic, but he cannot say no.

Myrddin cries harder in his arms, and Mordred begins to think it may not just be the storm troubling him.

“Did you have a bad dream?” he asks, keeping his voice quiet.

A nod is his answer, and so he asks more, “was it about mother?”

“Daddy,” his son stutters out, and Mordred pulls him closer; it had been nearly a year since his precocious son had declared 'daddy' improper, and that he would use father instead, to the amusement of the court. “Dark, hurt, scared – wanted Daddy, want Daddy, but Daddy wasn't there.”

“Daddy is here now,” Mordred holds his son closer, pressing a kiss to his forehead as he tries to reassure. “Daddy will always he here; he will never leave his Myrddin alone.”

There is more crying, and Mordred's heart breaks in his hands, until Myrddin finally manages to speak again – a tiny, broken, “promise?”

“I promise,” he holds him closer. “No matter what happens, Daddy will be here for you.”

It is a promise he does not think he could survive to break.

**Author's Note:**

> And of course, the worst part is, someday those dreams of being in pain and in darkness and scared will come true, and his father will not be there to save him.
> 
> (This doesn't really end but blegh not poking more)


End file.
